A little before 10 p.m. Saturday night it was time for Basehor-Linwood basketball players and fans to celebrate.

A poignant picture was being at center court inside the Basehor-Linwood High School gymnasium as parents, grand parents, students and teachers looked on.

Members of the boys and girls' basketball teams gathered with their tournament medals and posed for pictures with their first place trophies on what will likely be remembered as championship Saturday in Basehor for the rest of the year and maybe in future seasons.

Both teams had won the Basehor-Linwood Basketball Invitational and now they were posing together for pictures.

The players couldn't stop smiling as for a night they were champions.

The girls team had defeated Platte County 65-51 in a game that pitted two of the top teams in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Both teams were ranked in the Kansas City Star's top five poll.

The game also featured two top inside players in Basehor's Cassie Lombardino and Platte County's Morgan Johnson.

Both players led their teams' offenses during the game. Lombardino scored 21 points and Johnson finished with 25 points. Johnson scored 25 points in spite of missing a lot of time in the second half due to foul trouble.

Basehor-Linwood also received a major lift off the bench from Megan O'Bryan who scored 14 points in the game.

Platte County led 13-5 at the end of the first quarter and looked in control of the game.

In the second quarter, Basehor-Linwood responded with a 12-6 run and tied the game at 19-19.

Platte County went on a small run of its own and led 28-24 at halftime.

The Bobcats played scored 24 points in the third quarter and appeared to take control of the contest.

Trailing 30-27 in the third quarter, Lombardino scored eight consecutive points. Later Brooke Sanders drilled a three and Basehor-Linwood led 40-36.

O'Bryan scored seven consecutive points to help give the Bobcats a 47-38 lead entering the fourth quarter.

The Bobcats closed out the fourth quarter and won the game.

Sanders finished with nine points and Michelle Chrisman scored eight.

The game was a warm up for the boys' contest.

The game wasn't decided until the buzzer sounded in the fourth quarter of play.

Holton High guard David Martin took a three-point shot late in Saturday's game against Basehor-Linwood that would have won his team the game.

The shot looked as if it was going to go through the net, but instead clanked off the rim. Basehor-Linwood won the game 55-54 and with it the Basehor-Linwood boys basketball tournament championship.

It capped a wild last minute of play. After trailing most of the contest, Basehor-Linwood took the lead when Jacob Schierbaum made a put-back lay-up with less than a minute left to play in the game.

Holton turned the ball over on its next possession and then Basehor-Linwood went to the foul line. The shot missed and Holton called timeout after getting the rebound.

The timeout set up Martin's foul shot attempt.

Tanner Swafford was the tournament's most valuable player, finishing the game with 19 points.

For a full story on the games and a tournament recap, see this week's edition of the Basehor-Sentinel.